The hallucinogenic compounds found in magic mushrooms don’t just give people a one-day trip, they can also affect the brain for weeks, researchers have found.
Experts say the research helps explain why psilocybin, the drug’s active ingredient, distorts our sense of space, time and self while tripping, and helps shed light on the mechanism by which psilocybin might help treat severe depression.
Co-author Dr. Joshua Siegel of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis said the study could also benefit companies testing new psychedelic drugs or similar but non-psychedelic drugs.
“It could help determine whether new drugs are working on the right target and determine optimal dosing,” he said.
Article published in Nature magazineSiegel and colleagues report that they conducted a randomized controlled trial with seven healthy participants who agreed to take psilocybin in the name of science.
“I also had to have taken hallucinogens at some point in my life – a high dose equivalent to 5g of magic mushrooms – and being inside a big, loud, throbbing, claustrophobic magnet. [while] “When you take psilocybin, you have to make sure that the subjects can tolerate the situation,” Siegel said, adding that the team needed to make sure that the subjects could tolerate the situation.
“So we wanted to make sure we understood whether they could tolerate that.”
Participants were randomly assigned to receive either 25 mg of psilocybin or 40 mg of methylphenidate, a generic version of Ritalin, but were not told which they were receiving. After one to two weeks, participants were given the drug they had not initially been given.
Participants underwent MRI scans before, during, during and after each drug treatment, and four participants returned six to 12 months later to receive another dose of psilocybin and be scanned again. On average, participants underwent 18 MRI scans each.
The results revealed that taking psilocybin, but not methylphenidate, was associated with a loss of synchronization in the so-called default mode network, a group of interconnected brain regions that become active when the mind wanders and the brain isn’t engaged in any particular task. Importantly, Siegel says, this network is not only involved in creating a sense of self, but also shows connections to our perception of space and time.
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“The interpretation is [that disruption is] What creates this highly unusual experience? [when taking psilocybin]” Siegel said.
While the subjects’ brain scans returned to nearly normal the day after taking psilocybin, Siegel noted that reduced communication between the default mode network and the anterior hippocampus (a part of the brain important for memory and perception of space and time) persisted for three weeks after taking the drug.
Siegel said the findings may help explain reports that taking psilocybin increases flexibility in how people view themselves and their relationship to their environment. This plasticity is thought to make the brain more open to treatment, providing the basis for psychedelic-based interventions for conditions such as treatment-resistant depression.
Siegel added that while the research process is rigorous, there appear to be enough volunteers to study psychedelics. “We had no trouble finding participants,” he said.
